Another futile Lions season has come and gone (seriously, let’s just change the team name to the Futile Lions, which then can easily be switched to the F’ing Lions. I guess that’s already the unofficial team name. I digress).
While most fans in the NFL would be thrilled to see their team win two more games than the season before, there’s just something about “2-14” that doesn’t bring the Lions fight song to my ears. Of course, just one win would have been a vast improvement from last year, my expectations for this year were somewhere along the lines of 4-5 wins, mostly in the 2nd half of the year when Stafford would grow more and more comfortable with the offense (pre-season I was thinking wins against Rams, Seahawks, Browns, 49ers maybe, and Bears since the Lions love hurting their draft positioning in the final game of the season). I was clearly off here.
Two wins isn’t so bad with all things considered, though. The Lions had no shot in those final six weeks when they played four playoff teams fighting for positioning and played all of those games shorthanded. They had a chance in San Fran and against Chicago, but they played both without a number of their better players — including Matthew Stafford, Brandon Pettigrew, and Kevin Smith. This season was pretty much a wash in terms of wins before the season started, but by Thanksgiving it became the Tsunami of wash-outs, a season that the Lions couldn’t even use to develop young talent because those talents were having season ending surgeries.
Usually, I’m pulling for W’s no matter what because I think that’s the telltale sign of improvement (obvs for the Lions). Then (I’d say 1b), I’m happy with visible improvement, even if it doesn’t translate to victory. But I think for the first time in my history of rooting for the Lions, I had an inkling of hope that they would lose (and the Rams win) so the Lions could have the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft again. Suh what if I wanted them to lose?
I got my wish with the Lions losing, but the Rams also lost, so the Lions will pick second in the NFL draft. Now we sit back and wait to see if the Rams go with a quarterback because we all know they need one (Kyle Boller!?). Should Nebraska’s Suh fall to the Lions at No. 2, the 2009 season was a success in my mind (minus the injuries to the young talent). Look at the standards this team has caused me to set….
For the third year in a row, the best thing about the Detroit Lions was Calvin Johnson. He ended the season with a solid performance (rebounding nicely after fumbling twice in Week 16) by catching six passes for 86 yards and this impressive touchdown:
When the Lions get everybody healthy on offense and some fat guys who can actually block on the O-line, Calvin’s numbers should improve big time. This year he had his second straight 1,000 total yard season, although his total yards, receptions, and touchdowns all decreased (mainly a result of QB injuries, his own injuries causing him to miss two games, and defenses focusing on him due to the Lions inept offensive line). Look for the Lions to revamp that offensive line in the draft, much like they revamped the offense with the Stafford and Pettigrew picks last year.
Rams are on the clock, but we’ll have a pretty good idea of who the Lions will choose
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